We study the possible ground state configurations of two strongly coupled chains of charge neutral spin-3/2 fermionic atoms interacting via short range van der Waals interaction. The coupling between the two chains is realized by relatively large hop
ping amplitude. Exploiting that such a ladder configuration can be mapped to an effective one-band model we analyze the emerging ground states of the system. We show that various spatially inhomogeneous states, valence bond states, plaquette states compete depending on the filling and the ratio of the interaction strengths in the singlet and quintet scattering channel. We find that a Luttinger liquid state is the ground state of the strongly coupled ladder in an extended region of the parameter space, and we also show that a topologically nontrivial charge Haldane state can emerge in the strongly coupled ladder at quarter and three-quarter fillings.
